Detection and diagnosis of breast lesions: Performance evaluation of digital breast tomosynthesis and magnetic resonance mammography

ObjectiveTo assess the impact of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) and magnetic resonance mammography (MRM) in enhancing the performance of digital mammography (DM) in the detection and evaluation of different breast lesions.Patients and methodsIn this retrospective study, 98 patients with 103 breast lesions were assessed by DM, DBT and MRM. Mammography images were acquired using the “combo mode", where both DM and DBT scanned in the same compression. MRM was performed by 1T open system. Each lesion was assigned a blinded category in an individual performance for each modality. The resultant BI-RADS categories were correlated with reports of the pathology specimens or outcome of 18-month follow-up.ResultsBoth DBT and MRM showed equivalent sensitivity of 92%. The specificity for DBT and MRM was 80.7% and 89.7% respectively. The efficacy of DM was raised from 61% to 83.5% with DBT and 90.2% with MRM. The results of the three modalities and the final diagnosis revealed a significant correlation (p = 0.035).The association between the results of DBT and those of MRM showed statistically significant difference between DBT and MRM for diagnosing breast lesions (p = 0.001).ConclusionBoth MRM and DBT provide better performance than classic DM. Adding either of these modalities to the classic examination enhances diagnosis and precise disease distribution.